Here is some more, possibly useful information:
Postings on kubuntu's lists complained of problems with dbus without root
permissions. Kubuntu/ubuntu's approach to this is sudo only so becomes more
problematic. On my Debian system:
1. Dbusd IS running, started on init. (Note: There is no udev rule and no /dev
entry for dbus.)
2. However, two instances of dbus-launcher become stuck in memory when
attempting to start kde4 as user, one by user and one by root!
3. Hal's udev rule calls for a certain socket. There is no such file on my
system. The URI is NOT a /dev path.